Dispossession: The Great Social Housing Swindle – Edinburgh Screening + Q&A

Date: Wednesday 26th July 2017 from 18:30 – 21:00.

Venue: 50 George Square, Edinburgh EH8 9JU

Organiser: Built Environment Forum Scotland.

For some people, a housing crisis means not getting planning permission for a loft conversion. For others it means, quite simply, losing their home. Dispossession: The Great Social Housing Swindle is a feature documentary directed by Paul Sng (Sleaford Mods – Invisible Britain) and narrated by Maxine Peake, exploring the catastrophic failures that have led to a chronic shortage of social housing in Britain.

The film focuses on the neglect, demolition and regeneration of council estates across the UK and investigates how the state works with the private sector to demolish council estates to build on the land they stand on, making properties that are unaffordable to the majority of people.

Dispossession is the story of people fighting for their communities, of people who know the difference between a house and a home, and who believe that housing is a human right, not an expensive luxury.

The screening will be followed by a Q&A with Paul Sng (Director),  Dr Tom Slater, University of Edinburgh, Betty Stevenson, Convener of the Edinburgh Tenant’s Federation and Heather Ford, WPC Residents Association.

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The screening is jointly hosted by the Built Environment Forum Scotland (BEFS) and the University of Edinburgh’s Tower Block UK project which brings together public engagement and an openly-licensed image archive in an attempt to emphasise the social and architectural importance of multi-storey social housing in the UK.